Barnardo’s NI welcomes the opportunity to provide our response to the Proposed Content and Action Plan for the Infant Mental Health Framework. Our comments are informed by our work with the diverse communities of children and families that we support through our 45+ services in Northern Ireland, including providing services to support infant mental health and parent-infant relationship during the first 1,001 days of a babies life.
In November 2025, we launched the Born Unequal: Tackling the Root Causes of Health Inequity in Childhood report based on the learning from the Children and Young People’s Health Equity Collaborative.
This tool is for leaders who are confident in their voice and influence practice with children and young people and who interested in sharing examples of best practice with peers.
Drawing on our learning, we developed the Child Health Equity Monitoring Framework which consists of a key set of indicators aligned with the Child Health Equity Framework. The Monitoring Framework is designed to help local health and care systems track progress and take action on child health inequalities.
The collective learning from the CHEC programme has been used to develop a Child Health Equity Readiness tool, designed to support Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and other ICS organisations.
The Child Health Equity Framework was developed as part of the Children and Young People’s Health Equity Collaborative (CHEC): a partnership between the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE), Barnardo’s and three Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Birmingham and Solihull, Cheshire and Merseyside, and South Yorkshire, which ran from 2023 until 2025.
An independent evaluation was carried out by M.E.L Research.
This report provides an overview of our Caring for Equality event, including a summary of the speeches delivered by our 12 Young Carer Champions who shared their experiences as young carers, including the systemic barriers and challenges to their lives as carers and as young people.
The Select Committee report provides a thorough analysis of these issues with
a number of recommendations which, if acted upon would result in a significantly improved system of support which Barnardo’s believe would transform outcomes for care leavers.
The 2026 Senedd election comes at a pivotal time for babies, children, and young people in Wales. Having faced many challenges in recent years, children and their families remain positive about their future and want to see a government that can match their enthusiasm and passion for what their lives could be.
